- 40 nations contributing to UN Lebanon peacekeeping force condemn 'attacks'
- Eight dead as heavy rain thrashes Brazil after long drought
- Jewish school in Canada hit by gunfire for second time
- Morocco crush Central African Republic, Guirassy scores hat-trick
- Dupont scores quickfire hat-trick on Toulouse Top 14 return
- Ronaldo scores in Portugal's Nations League win as Spain sink Denmark
- Interim boss Carsley has not applied for England job
- Mets hurler Senga ready to take on Dodgers in game one of NL Championship Series
- Ronaldo on target again as Portugal defeat Poland in Nations League
- Guardians rip Tigers 7-3 to advance in MLB playoffs
- AFP, BBC win top French war reporting awards
- Carsley goes back to basics as humbled England face Finland
- Alex Salmond: the man who took Scotland to the brink of independence
- Scotland's former leader Alex Salmond dies aged 69: party
- UN warns of catastrophe as Israel fights a two-front war
- Croatia extend Scotland's losing streak
- South Africa, New Zealand boost T20 World Cup semi-final hopes
- 'Very challenging': Israel faces Hezbollah in tricky terrain
- Farrell begins to feel at home as Racing 92 beat Toulon
- South Africa boost T20 World Cup semi-final hopes with Bangladesh win
- Samson ton powers India to T20 series sweep after record total
- Djokovic to face Sinner in Shanghai final with 100th title in sight
- UN peacekeepers to remain in Lebanon: spokesman
- Pro-Conquest film fuels debate in Mexico over colonial legacy
- Samson ton powers India to record 297-6 in Bangladesh T20
- New Zealand enjoy perfect start to America's Cup defence over Britain
- Pogacar emulates icon Coppi with fourth straight Il Lombardia triumph
- UN warns against 'catastrophic' regional conflict
- New Zealand crush Ineos Britannia in America's Cup opener
- Djokovic to face Sinner in blockbuster Shanghai Masters final
- With medical report Harris seeks to play health card against Trump
- Sri Lanka seeks to match success in W.Indies T20s
- Sinner reaches Shanghai final, will end year number one
- China-EU EV tariff talks in Brussels end with 'major differences': Beijing
- Sabalenka downs Gauff in three sets to reach Wuhan final
- Israel warns south Lebanon residents to 'not return'
- Sinner tames Machac to reach Shanghai Masters final
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- Harris to release medical report confirming fitness for presidency: campaign
- Nobel prize a timely reminder, Hiroshima locals say
- Hezbollah fires at Israel as wars rage on Yom Kippur
- Analysts warn more detail needed on new China economic measures
- China tees up fresh spending to boost ailing economy
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- Alexei Navalny wrote he knew he would die in prison in new memoir
- Last-minute legal ruling allows betting on US election
- Despite hurricanes, Floridians refuse to leave 'paradise'
- Israel observes Yom Kippur amid firestorm over Lebanon strikes
Ukraine steelworks defenders surrender as Russian pleas for forgiveness
Russia said Thursday that 1,730 Ukrainian soldiers had surrendered this week at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, showing some emerging on crutches after an all-out battle that has become emblematic of the nearly three-month-old war.
The number included 80 who were wounded and taken to a hospital in Russia-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine, the defence ministry in Moscow said.
The ministry released a video appearing to show the surrendered soldiers hobbling out of the sprawling plant after it was besieged for weeks. Russian troops patted them down and inspected their bags as they exited.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had registered "hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners of war" from the plant in Mariupol, a port city levelled by Russian shelling.
Ukraine accuses Moscow's forces of war crimes against civilians in Mariupol and elsewhere, and has begun the first prosecution of a Russian soldier.
Vadim Shishimarin, a shaven-headed Russian sergeant from Irkutsk in Siberia, pleaded guilty to a war crime and faces a life sentence.
He admitted to shooting dead Oleksandr Shelipov, an unarmed 62-year-old man, in Ukraine's Sumy region on February 28 -- four days into the invasion.
Shishimarin was remorseful as he took the dock for a second day on Thursday.
"I know that you will not be able to forgive me, but nevertheless I ask you for forgiveness," he said, addressing Shelipov's wife in the cramped courtroom in Kyiv.
- Folk celebration -
But while Mariupol has fallen, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said the wider invasion was an "absolute failure" as he marked "Vyshyvanka Day", an annual celebration of Ukrainian folk traditions.
Wearing an embroidered shirt instead of his usual military khaki top, Zelensky said on the Telegram social media platform that his people remained "strong, unbreakable, brave and free".
Zelensky's defiance, and his army's dogged resistance, have earned the West's admiration and a steady flow of military support. G7 finance ministers were meeting in Germany to thrash out more cash support.
G7 partners have to "assure Ukraine's solvency within the next days, few weeks", German Finance Minister Christian Lindner told the newspaper Die Welt.
But German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said there could be "no shortcuts" to membership of the European Union for Ukraine. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba condemned the "second-class treatment" of his country.
- Famine warning -
Russia's actions are already redrawing the security map of Europe.
US President Joe Biden was to host the leaders of Finland and Sweden later Thursday to discuss their bids to join NATO, after the Nordic neighbours decided to abandon decades of military non-alignment.
"I warmly welcome and strongly support the historic applications from Finland and Sweden for membership in NATO," Biden said, offering US support against any "aggression" while their bids are considered.
Beyond Europe, the invasion also threatens to bring famine, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
"Malnutrition, mass hunger and famine" could follow "in a crisis that could last for years," Guterres warned, urging Russia to release grain exports from occupied Ukraine.
Russia and Ukraine produce 30 percent of the global wheat supply, and the war has already sent food prices surging around the world.
- 'Time to run' -
Despite their last-ditch resistance in places such as Mariupol, and the successful defence of Kyiv, Ukrainian forces are retreating in the east.
The losses often come after weeks of battles over towns and small cities that are pulverised by the time the Russians surround them in a slow-moving wave.
"I tell everyone that there is no reason to worry when the banging is from outgoing fire," Volodymyr Netymenko said as he packed up his sister's belongings before evacuating her from the burning village of Sydorove in eastern Ukraine.
"But when it is incoming, it is time to run. And things have been flying at us pretty hard for the past two or three days."
In the Russian region of Kursk, one person died and others were injured in an attack on a village on the border with Ukraine, the local governor said.
- War crimes trials -
A second war crimes trial was due to open in Ukraine Thursday.
The International Criminal Court is deploying its largest-ever field team to Ukraine, with 42 investigators, forensic experts and support staff to gather evidence of alleged war crimes.
Ukrainian civilians are bearing the brunt of incessant Russia mortar fire raining down on the eastern city of Severodonetsk.
Nella Kashkina sat in the basement next to an oil lamp and prayed.
"We have no medicine left and a lot of sick people -- sick women -- need medicine. There is simply no medicine left at all."
burs-jit/lc
H.E.Young--AMWN